


the difference between sleeping and dreaming

by eddiekissbrak



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Fluff, Hanbrough, M/M, and benverly, if u squint, if u squint harder, reddie in a hammock what could be better than this, theres some uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 22:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21234659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eddiekissbrak/pseuds/eddiekissbrak
Summary: “how come richie’s always the first one on the hammock?”“because i’m the first one down here.”“yeah, ‘cause you pushed me!”richie adjusted his glasses on his nose. “your mom likes it when i’m pushy with her.”eddie never dropped it, though. at some point he’d decided that there was no forcing richie out, so he’d just have to get in. so he did, mumbling expletives and shoving at richie’s too-long limbs the whole time he adjusted to sharing the swing of the hammock.it was, like, the biggest win of richie’s life.





	the difference between sleeping and dreaming

hands down, no questions about it, the hammock was the best feature of the entire bunker.

bev liked bean bag chairs ben had added. she and ben could sit in the corner listening to his tapes through shared headphones for hours, cycling through _new kids on the block_ and _madonna_ and _prince_ until the batteries wore out.

ben also liked the bean bag chairs.

the bookcase was stan’s favorite, mostly because it gave him a great swell of pride whenever one of the losers borrowed a book he’d stocked it with. it was still pretty empty, and three of the ten books were specialty handbooks for bird spotting, but it was there.

eddie contributed a polaroid camera he’d gotten for christmas because he had the artistic eye of seaweed and every photo he took came out blurry and half-developed, for whatever reason. bev had taken to snapping pictures of the losers in various unexplainable situations, and now there was a nice string of pictures hanging near the entryway, so eddie felt good about it.

mike and bill had brought in a game table and spent most of their time mutually sucking at scrabble (though mike usually won — stan liked to stand behind him pretending to read his book but subtly hint at different combinations mike could make, leaving bill to lean back in his chair and huff out a _“wh-why do i even bother?”_)

but fuck all of that: the hammock reigned supreme. when it had been installed, it was clear every one of the losers had been excited to take a turn — to the point they’d needed to come up with a schedule for usage or there was going to be hands thrown. at some point, though, the rest of them had taken note that fighting richie for time on the hammock just wasn’t worth it.

except eddie.

it was always:

_“how come richie’s always the first one on the hammock?”_

_“because i’m the first one down here.”_

_“yeah, ‘cause you pushed me!”_

_richie adjusted his glasses on his nose. “your mom likes it when i’m pushy with her.”_

or:

_“richie, you can’t hog the hammock the whole time.”_

_“i can’t hear you, i’m sleeping.”_

_“you’re literally talking to me right now, fuckface.”_

_“i’m probably sleep-talking, and you know they say you’re not supposed to disrupt sleep-talkers.”_

_“that’s sleep-walkers, richie,” mike chimed in, and bill groaned “r-really? zoology on a tr-riple letter square?”_

_“STOP FAKE SNORING, DICKHEAD, I KNOW YOU’RE AWAKE.”_

or:

_“it’s my turn on the hammock, richie.”_

_“richie tozier isn’t here right now,” richie said, not looking up from his comic. “if you’d like to leave your name and number at the tone, he’ll get back to you after he’s done fucking your mother.”_

eddie never dropped it, though. at some point he’d decided that there was no forcing richie out, so he’d just have to get in. so he did, mumbling expletives and shoving at richie’s too-long limbs the whole time he adjusted to sharing the swing of the hammock.

it was, like, the biggest win of richie’s life.

for the most part, they sat at opposite ends, limbs tangling together as they read the latest editions of spiderman or she-hulk. eddie spent a lot of time playfully kicking richie or knocking his glasses off with his toes, and richie spent a lot of time letting him. when they hit high-school, though, and richie shot up like a knobby-kneed corn stalk, sharing the hammock became less and less feasible. at least, the way they’d been doing it before.

“c’mon richie, get the fuck up,” eddie whined. “i wanna’ take a nap.”

he and stan had spent the whole afternoon studying for an algebra test tomorrow while richie played his game-boy ‘for moral support’. stan already left, though, mumbling something about not being able to handle ‘this repressed shit’ anymore, whatever that meant, and eddie was in that post-study cranky mood.

“hop on in, chap,” richie offered, patting his chest like it was some sort of enticing pillow.

“oh, fuck you, i just wanna’—“

“i’m serious,” richie argues, letting his legs splay over the sides of the fabric and making an eddie sized space. “or you can go home. i’m sure sonia would love to have her eddie-bear cuddle up for a nap.” the look in eddie’s eyes was downright feral and richie was worried he’d legitimately pissed him off but then eddie’s shoulders just kind of dropped and a yawn overpowered any fight left in him.

“fine.” so he’d crawled in and collapsed on richie’s body (after elbowing him sharply in the stomach and making a pleased humming sound at richie’s pained _oof_).

and. it’s not like they’d never been curled up like this, but they were usually accompanied by the other losers, and it was never quite this close. richie could feel eddie’s heartbeat getting slower and slower against his ribs, could feel eddie’s soft breaths on the bit of exposed skin above richie’s shirt collar.

“shut up, richie.”

“i’m not — i didn’t say anything!”

eddie just huffs in response, and after a few moments, everything is quiet. so richie picks up his comic, wishes his pulse into some semblance of a steady beat, and pretends he’s not focusing on every rise and fall of eddie’s shoulders.

after that, it’s almost tradition: they argue, richie makes room, and eddie crawls in like he was made to fit between richies legs. sometimes richie stays awake and reads, sometimes he falls asleep too, counting the freckles on the bridge of eddie’s nose. sometimes richie wakes up before eddie and finds their hands interlocked, and sometimes eddie wakes up before richie and slips his fingers between richie’s before falling back asleep.

they never, _ever_ nap together in front of the other losers.

which is why, when the roof-top door swings open as richie’s just about to take off his glasses and join eddie in dreamland, his heart stops.

it’s bev, and ben, and richie lets out a little sigh of relief because bill enters rooms with all the finesse of an elephant on roller skates and eddie would’ve woken up immediately.

as it is, eddie gives a little shift when bev laughs quietly at whatever ben had said, so by the time she and ben turn around, richie’s shaking his head as violently as he can without disturbing the sleeping boy atop him.

bev’s hand flies up to contain her gleeful laugh, and ben just stands there looking about as shocked as he had when he’d discovered bill and mike were fooling around; which is to say, not that shocked. ben just puts his hands up and smiles before crawling back up the ladder, and bev looks like she’s about to follow, but something on the bookshelf catches her eye. richie knows what it is before she’s even grabbed it, and his cheeks flush bright red when she pulls the polaroid from the shelf. there’s no feasible way to get out of this without waking up eddie, defeating the entire purpose, so richie just lays back and accepts his fate with a sigh and a middle finger to the lens.

—

later, after eddie’s forced him to buy them both ice cream before he split off to go home, richie tacks up the stolen polaroid beside his bed.

there’d be plenty of opportunities for bev to snap another.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr saw it first...Again. thanks to my wife alez for sending me prompts :*


End file.
